Creating leaders with an integrated service-learning curriculum

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Abstract

While some schools devote a course or a project to service-learning, others have found that integrating it into all aspects of the students' education works best. At Langley Middle School, in Langley, Washington, the service-learning coordinator works closely with teachers to develop service-learning based curricula. All of Langley's 520 students and a vast majority of the faculty and staff participate in one or more service-learning projects. More than 60 classes at the school incorporate service-learning components. This program was highlighted in the National Service News, Issue No. 168, September 30, 2002, published by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Issue

Integrating service-learning with school-wide curricula.

Action

At Langley Middle School, in Langley, Washington, the service-learning coordinator works closely with teachers to develop service-learning based curriculum. While there is a wide range of service-learning activities integrated into the Langley curricula, four areas are of special emphasis:

1. The Apprenticeship Program provides nine weeks of hands-on experience working in the community under the supervision of an adult mentor. About half the eighth grade students participate, working in stores, service organizations and professional and government offices, where they serve customers, do office work, and help pre-schoolers. Reflection on their experiences takes place at scheduled meetings; they then report back to classmates, and are evaluated by their mentors.
2. Adventure Education is an environmental service-learning experience for seventh grade students. In the class, students coordinate and run their school recycling program, as well as design and implement a three-day learning expedition to the San Juan Islands. Students are responsible for all aspects of the expedition, including menu planning, shopping for food, planning learning stations, identifying and involving community partners, and planning and implementing service-learning projects. Upon returning from their expeditions, students choose a topic of interest from their expedition that they would like to learn more about. They follow up with extensive research in their subject area, and then put on a community presentation night, in which parents and community members are invited, to present what they have learned. Students also create videos and slide shows from the expedition.
  
  Service-Learning projects that Adventure Education students have engaged in include:
  - Scotch Broom removal on Hope Island State Park and Deception Pass State Park
  - Environmental Impact Statement collection on Saddlebag Island with the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Reserve
  - Beach cleanup
  - Spartina education projects with Island County Noxious Weed Board
  - Environmental education projects for younger children in local schools with the "Green Dream" Recycling Video
  - Partnering with a local AmeriCorps team in a restoration wetlands project, working with the local planning commission and helping to build structures
3. The Leadership Program is a student-directed set of group service projects that are tied to academic courses. Through the program, students learn leadership skills, help with the annual Veterans Day assembly, plan activities that recognize students at their school who make a difference, and take the lead in planning events and creating awareness for Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. In the last quarter the students plan all graduation activities for the eighth grade class.
4. Through the Youth in Philanthropy Program (YIP), the seventh grade English and Communications class is provided $10,000 by the Glasser Foundation. Students research and assess community needs, get input from other students, and then disburse the money to selected community organizations.
  
  Students work on building writing and language skills with the goal of writing business letters and corresponding with people they work with in the community to fulfill the requirements of the grant project.
  
  During the pilot year of the program in 2001-2002, the YIP program received over 30 applications from nonprofit organizations in the community. Students developed rubrics to begin the process of scoring the grant applications in early March, and by April, had selected eight finalists. Then they conducted site visits to the eight organizations, meeting with staff and volunteers at the various organizations and agencies, and touring the facilities of the organizations. This process helped provide the information students needed to select their final grant recipients, which included:
  - South Whidbey Senior Center: YIP students granted the Senior Center approximately $600.00 for a new PA system for the center's dances and bingo games.
  - Friends of the Clinton Library: $800.00 was granted to this organization for new children's bookshelves, an outside reader board for the library, and an outside bike rack.
  - South Whidbey Youth Council: YIP granted approximately $4,000.00 to the local youth council, to be used for sound equipment to begin offering late night teen "coffee house concerts."
  - Friends of Friends: This organization provides grass roots medical support to local citizens, and YIP provided them approximately $2,000.00 to support their work.
  - South Whidbey Historical Society: YIP provided this organization approximately $1,500.00 to produce and present a series of plays in local schools on famous historical women from the South Whidbey community.

Context

Langley Middle School is located on South Whidbey Island, Washington, north of Seattle in Puget Sound.

Langley is a National Service-Learning Leader School, where all 520 students and 90 percent of the faculty and staff participate in service-learning activities. Service-learning is integrated into the local school district's strategic plan, as well as in Langley Middle School's mission and goals.

Langley is a partner with at least 50 local businesses and organizations, and collaborates with universities and a local AmeriCorps program.

A three-year Northwest Rural Service-Learning grant awarded in 2000 provided resources for staff training and development.

Outcome

In its successful application to be a National Service-Learning Leader School in 2002, Langley cited many benefits they have derived from service-learning, including "the development of responsibility and a sense of worth for our students. Community, connection and caring are some of the benefits for our school community."

Principal Greg Willis said, "Service-learning builds powerful connections between what students learn in the classroom and apply in real life. The respect we've built between our school and the community is the perfect stepping stone to help other area schools integrate service-learning into their curriculum."

Students at Langley also develop personal and civic responsibility through environmental service and stewardship.

Langley is now sharing its experience as a National Service-Learning Leader School and, with Northwest Rural Service-Learning Partners, presented at the 2002 National Service-Learning Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

Evidence

Only 16 schools in the United States have been named National Service-Learning Leader Schools, demonstrating exemplary academic engagement and achievement.

The roots of the current service-learning efforts at Langley can be traced as far back as the late 1980s. Since 1998, incidents requiring some form of suspension or discipline have been cut in half.